Santa and Frank
People who remember the old comic strip "Peanuts" will recall an often repeated situation where Lucy offers to hold a football for Charlie Brown to kick. Then, as Charlie comes running...
Opinion
Do We Really Need Three Liberal New Yorkers on the Supreme Court?
The nomination of Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court by President Obama seems to ignore the democratic notion that members of the Supreme Court ought to represent a wide constituency of...
The Founders’ Vision Versus Ours
The celebration of our founders' 1776 revolt against King George III and the English Parliament is over. Let's reflect how the founders might judge today's Americans and how today's Americans might...
Foreclosures Hit Rich and Poor
The rich as well as the poor are losing their homes to foreclosures. That fact helps demonstrate the vast silliness of the federal government helping those low-income Americans who are not...
Despicable Me and the Plot to Steal the Moon
For parents interested in a pleasant way to pass the afternoon with their children, consider newly released Despicable Me (that is, if Toy Story 3 is not an option). Characterized by...
Let’s Be Honest About Sen. Robert Byrd
There’s been a lot written over the past 12 days about the death of Robert Byrd, the so-called “last lion of the Senate.” But the West Virginia senator was no lion...
Sarah Palin, Soccer Moms, & Mama Grizzlies
We have had “soccer moms,” “hockey moms,” “waitress moms,” and other designations for women voters candidates like to target. Now Sarah Palin, who was pleased to tell the world two years...
When a People Tyrannizes Itself
All around the realm was heard a fateful cry: ?'Twill make us sleep the nightmare if ye tax the other guy. ?We can accept the yoke of poor polity,? ...
Book Reveals Neo-Con Influence in GOP
Tom Pauken, a lawyer and conservative political activist hailing from Texas, wrote Bringing Home America: How America Lost Her Way and How We Can Find Our Way Back for the stated...
What Goes Around Comes Around
There’s a maxim everyone’s heard, personally mouthed, and undoubtedly believes: “What goes around comes around.” Or, “the boomerang effect. Remarkably, however, although we’ve all heard, mouthed, and believed it,...
“Fuller Strategy” Needed to “Explain” Afghan War
Back in the 1950s there was a TV commercial designed to induce headaches in viewers in order to increase demand for the product the commercial was hawking — a pill to...
The Last Airbender: Visually Stunning Failure
The Last Airbender is M. Night Shyamalan's ninth directorial effort and is an imaginative and wonderfully visual film — as long as no one is talking. For a director on his...
There Oughtn’t To Be A Law
Pick your peeve: illegal immigrants, toxic television with its pornographic programs, second-hand smoke, ballooning budgets. Even the smallest of small-government advocates sometimes assume that fixing such entrenched or annoying problems requires...
Our One-World Sphere of Influence
I used to think you had to have a sense of humor to survive in politics. I am now becoming convinced that a great many politicians have a tin ear for...
Under-reporting Unemployment
The June jobs report issued by the Labor Department noted that total employment was down by 125,000 jobs for the month and that the 83,000-worker growth in the private sector was...